Western Cape Schools Feel The Squeeze After Cuts In Teacher Posts

On 15 January, schools in the Western Cape reopened with fewer teachers than in 2024, forcing the remaining staff to manage more learners. The provincial education department cut roughly 2,400 teaching posts in response to budget shortfalls it blames on National Treasury.

GroundUp spoke to principals and teachers at four government schools in order to find out how it has affected them.

The principal of one Cape Town primary school said that last year they were notified by the department that they needed to shed three teacher posts by 1 January. As a result, it was decided that classes for the grade threes would have to be combined: rather than having three classes, each with 36 students, educators would need to take on two classes of 54.

The principal retired just before the start of the new school year and she is unsure about how things have played out, but she is worried.